New Delhi: Between 2014 and 2019, 326 cases were registered under the controversial penal law on sedition, of which only six were punished. The Supreme Court last week said that Section 124 (A) of the IPC – the offense of sedition – was misused on a large scale and asked the Center to support people like Mahatma Gandhi to suppress the freedom movement by the British. Why is it not doing away with the provisions used to “silence” the
According to the Union Home Ministry data, a total of 326 cases were registered under the sedition law between 2014 and 2019, of which a maximum of 54 cases was registered in Assam. Of these cases, charge sheets were filed in 141 while only six persons were convicted for the offense during the six-year period.
Officials said that the Ministry of Home Affairs has not yet collected the figures for 2020. Of the 56 cases registered in Assam, charge sheets were filed in 26, and the trial was completed in 25 cases. However, no one was convicted in a single case in the state between 2014 and 2019.
In Jharkhand, 40 cases were registered under Section 124 (A) of the IPC during six years, out of which charge sheets were filed in 29 cases, and the trial was completed in 16 cases in which only one person was convicted. In Haryana, 31 cases were registered under the Sedition Act, out of which charge sheets were filed in 19 cases, and the trial was completed in six cases in which only one person was convicted.
Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, and Kerala have reported 25 cases each. In Bihar and Kerala, charge sheets could not be filed in any of the cases while in Jammu and Kashmir charge sheets were filed in three cases. However, no one was convicted in any of the three states between 2014 and 2019.
In Karnataka 22 cases of sedition were registered in which charge sheets were filed in 17 cases but the trial could be completed in only one case. However, no one was convicted in any of the cases during this period. Between 2014 and 2019, 17 cases of sedition were registered in Uttar Pradesh and eight in West Bengal. Charge sheets were filed in eight cases in Uttar Pradesh and five in West Bengal but no one was convicted in both states.
Four sedition cases were registered in Delhi between 2014 and 2019 but no charge sheet was filed in any of the cases. Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, Sikkim, Andaman and Nicobar, Lakshadweep, Puducherry, Chandigarh, Daman, and Diu, Dadra, and Nagar Haveli have not registered any case of sedition in six years. One case each of sedition was registered in three states of Maharashtra, Punjab, and Uttarakhand.
According to the Home Ministry data, the country recorded the highest number of sedition cases of 93 in 2019. This was followed by 70 cases in 2018, 51 in 2017, 47 in 2014, 35 in 2016, and 30 in 2015. 40 charge sheets were filed under the sedition law in the country in 2019, 38 in 2018, 27 in 2017, 16 in 2016, 14 in 2014, and six in 2015. Of the six who were convicted, two were sentenced in 2018 and one person each in 2019, 2017, 2016, and 2014. In 2015, no one was convicted.
